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Thursday, June 3, 2010

"Old Sail Lofts" an exercise from The Watercolourist's Guide to Painting Buildings






Boy, was this fun!!

I've had this book - The Watercolourist's Guide to Painting Buildings by Richard Taylor for quite a while and never really done much with it - other than admire Mr. Taylor's beautiful paintings. Yesterday I was leafing through it looking for some color info and saw several projects in the book that the author recommends you complete to help learn the techniques he covers. I thought, "I should do one of these exercises". So I did.

I sketched it out fairly closely to the example and decided to go pretty much with the colors used by the author because I wanted to spend my time on painting techniques, not making color choices. Can you tell I've got a one track mind? Being able to focus mainly on painting techniques and the results of those techniques was so helpful and very informative. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this little painting. I did a minimum of reworking and even managed to save a little more white space than usual (yes!).

This was time well spent. I had several "Aha" moments while doing this exercise.... it's a little like having a mentor peering over your shoulder offering advice.

I've posted some WIPs. Photos not so great :-(

Hmmmm........ let's see. What shall I paint next?

13 comments:

Ann said...

Great painting! I sometimes think about following those exercises in books and then talk myself out of it, thinking I should just learn my own way. Of course I'd probably get there a lot faster if I did a few of those exercises :-) Thanks for sharing this and all the steps, you have inspired me to get out one of my watercolor books again.

ArtistUnplugged said...

This turned out really lovely!!!! I enjoyed seeing the steps you did. Good for you, for doing the exercise and learning something more!!!

Kathy A. Johnson said...

Beautiful painting, and I loved seeing the wip shots. I'm usually quite bad about completing exercises, writing or painting, but always find I benefit when I do it. Good job!

"JeanneG" said...

I love seeing what you do.

Claire M said...

Gee.... I'm so glad you opened this book and put it to use. Your painting is gorgeous! What a great idea to work through some of his lessons. I'm also grateful to learn about this book - sounds like a good one. I just snagged a used copy online so I'll give it a try this summer. Thanks!!

Gillian Mowbray said...

Beautiful work - and a good reminder that it really does help to do those exercises - how many of us ignore them!
The subject looks like the sail lofts in Hastings, UK.

knittingdragonflies said...

I like seeing your shots of the painting as it goes along! It looks good! Your paint brushes are smokin!!
Vicki

Laure Ferlita said...

Most delightful!!! You have evidently really locked into this watercolor stuff as you're doing quite well!


Love the WIPs!

MALHAS DE BÉBÉ (GERTRUDES said...

olá passei para lhe desejar uma boa noite tudo de bom para ti um grande abraço

padmaja said...

It is a nice feeling to do a painting after reading an art book, I have been doing that quite often.. This is a cute little one you created here, nice that you posted how you progressed. right now I am doing buildings too and will share soon :-)

K said...

Teresa, this is a delightful painting! I too love Richard Taylor's style. Have not seen this book - may have to get it. I think you did a wonderful job and thanks for showing your step-by-step progress. Isn't it fun to have those "Aha" moments that make it all worthwhile?

Lynne said...

Hi Teresa,
As usual you have some lovely paintings here. I liked your story about the rabbits.

Jan said...

Buildings! You're a braver woman than I and it's turned out so well!

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